The present disclosure relates to a conveyor device provided in a recording apparatus and an inkjet recording apparatus including the conveyor device.
An inkjet recording apparatus is a commonly known type of recording apparatus. Inkjet recording apparatuses are widely used in machines such as printers, copiers, and multifunction peripherals due to their compactness, low cost, and low operating noise. Inkjet recording apparatuses are broadly classified as being either a line head or a serial head type.
A line head inkjet recording apparatus includes a conveyor device that conveys a recording medium. The conveyor device generally includes a conveyor belt. The conveyor device is located opposite to a recording head and holds a recording medium on the conveyor belt while conveying the recording medium. The recording medium is held on the conveyor belt by using static electricity to attract the recording medium or negative pressure to suck the recording medium.
The conveyor device includes a suction section that sucks on the recording medium through the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt has a plurality of suction holes perforated therein. The suction section includes a guide member that supports the recording medium through the conveyor belt. The guide member has a plurality of through holes passing therethrough. Each of the through holes passes through the guide member in a thickness direction thereof. The guide member has a plurality of grooves into a surface thereof that faces the recording head. The through holes are located inside of the grooves into the guide member. The suction section includes an air flow chamber under the guide member. The suction section creates negative pressure in the air flow chamber. As such, the suction section sucks air through the suction holes in the conveyor belt and through the grooves and the through holes in the guide member. Through the above, the recording medium is sucked onto the conveyor belt.
Unfortunately, a configuration such as described above suffers the following problem. That is, when the conveyor belt is covered with a recording medium, pressure loss in the paths constituted by the grooves and the through holes of the guide member excessively increases to excessively increase the negative pressure in the air flow chamber. Such an excessive increase in negative pressure in the air flow chamber may excessively increase suction force for sucking the conveyor belt on the guide member to lead to unevenness in circulation speed of the conveyor belt. This is because the suction force for sucking the conveyor belt on the guide member acts as a load resistance against conveyance of the conveyor belt. Uneven circulation speed of the conveyor belt may cause ink droplets ejected from the recording head to land on points deviated from target positions, resulting in an artifact like printing shift or coloristic shift in an image formed on the recording medium.
By contrast, a guide member in another inkjet recording apparatus has a surface facing the conveyor belt in which transversely long grooves extend in terms of a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The transversely long grooves lie between grooves that are adjacent to each other in the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The transversely long grooves extend up to one end of the guide member (end in terms of the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium) so as to be in communication with air even when the conveyor belt is covered with the recording medium.